All Quiet on the Western Front

All quiet on the western front is a WW1 novel from the perspective of a German Veteran Paul. This book describes the German soldiers’ extreme mental and physical stress during the war that he and his colleagues endure. “I am young, I am twenty years old, yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. I see how people are set against one another.” Says narrator Paul Baumer; Erich Maria Remarque the author of All Quiet on the Western Front. As many would agree, as well as Erich, that war is a machine that destroys all lives that are involved, even the survivors. It doesn’t stop, almost like its mechanical, with its on going conflict that seems to never end. Finally, it transforms men, just like a machine would transform materials. These reasons on why war is a machine are expressed throughout the book in multiple examples.

Its no surprise war destroys lives or takes lives, in All Quiet on the Western Front multiple lives are taken or destroyed. The most dominant example is through Paul himself. Before the war he was a writer, living his life through peace and prosperity. Throughout the book Paul’s faith slowly diminishes and he starts to forget who he really is. This is foreshadowed through his play Saul, because it’s a play about a man who looses faith and in the bible Saul turns to Paul but as shown through the book Paul figuratively turns into Saul. In many ways ww1 alerted the outlook on war more than any other wars. Its catastrophic levels of violence destroyed lives like a machine. Another perfect example that goes hand in hand with war is a machine because it destroys lives in the machines used in the war itself. Machine guns were the number one used weapon in the war, and took the most lives. Most of the men in ww1 were not there because they wanted to be, they were there because of the draft. When a young man is holing machine guns and is being threatened he feels very strong and powerful in...

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...the autumn of 1918, a 20 year old german soldier contemplates to himself: “Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing more. I am so alone, and so without hope that I can confront them without fear” (295). These last few thoughts happen right before this soldier, Paul Baumer, dies. In the book AllQuiet On the WesternFront, Erich Maria Remarque creates the character of Paul Baumer in order to illustrate a generation full of men who are well known throughout our history, of what we all know of, the “Lost Generation.” About eight million soldiers lost their lives in combat and millions more were injured under the occasion of what we call today, “The Great War.” Remarque wrote this book about what these fighters at war deal with first hand; like with their teachers, families, and government. AllQuiet On the WesternFront expresses a story filled with the beauty of comradeship between each of the soldiers by finding solace in one another and the extenuating gestures of raillery throughout the book that help keep them from completely being taken over by the fear of death, or even war itself.
Throughout all the horrifying pictures of death and inhumanity, Remarque shows a quality that makes it better: comradeship. Two scenes that caught to my attention that showed acts of soldiers finding comfort...

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AllQuiet on the WesternFrontAllQuiet on the WesternFront could definitely be considered an anti-war novel. The changes the characters in the novel subjected themselves to throughout the book allow the reader to view the negative effects soldiers went through during, as well as after the war. Anti-war means that you are against the war and leaning more towards the idea of peace. This novel showed the dissatisfaction and disappointment in each character once they begun to truly understand war and battle from first-hand experience. AllQuiet on the WesternFront had an anti-war theme in every aspect of the book starting with the eagerness of the characters at the beginning of the war and their transformation to disappointment after the war. The description of the bloody battles, the severe causalities of the war, and the after effects on the soldiers themselves showed that the author was showing the story of WWI in a way that showed negativity towards war. By humanizing the soldiers Erich Maria Remarque allows us to understand how these young men were just like the average person fighting relentlessly for a purpose that was not even clear to them, and for little to no personal or national gain. The soldier’s ultimate goal was to survive and although they transform throughout the novel...

...Francois Fenelon once said, “All wars are civil wars because all men are brothers” (BrainyQuotes). Every man no matter what country he is from is interrelated. Whether someone is Christian or Catholic, they both believe in God; whether an American is Democratic or Republic they both agree on a democracy, and whether someone is Chinese or German, both are human beings. Throughout war every army man faces the horrors of watching their comrade’s die and the act of firing on a fellow human being. In AllQuiet on the WesternFront, Paul and his classmates experience exactly this. Paul went into war expecting a memorable experience but realized just the opposite was imminent. He was forced to murder fellow brothers, according to Fenelon. Paul and his comrades represent the Lost Generation after suffering physical, mentally, and emotionally in Erich Remarque’s AllQuiet on the WesternFront.
Throughout a war, many men will be titled as a casualty. The amount of death resulting from war is emphasized when the narrator says, “On the last day an astonishing number of English heavies opened up on us with high-explosive, drumming ceaselessly on our position, so that we suffered severely and came back only eighty strong” (Remarque 2). Just before this bombardment, the company consisted of 150 healthy men. Sometimes, other battles could be even...

...The book, AllQuiet on the WesternFront by Erich Maria Remarque can be identified with many themes. Whether the theme is loyalty to friends, the unbelievable suffering at the hands of other human beings, or the beauty of nature in contrast to the horrors of war, none of those are as fitting as the theme: betrayal by adults. The manipulation performed by a trusted schoolmaster, the awful treatment done by someone who is called a leader, and parents going along with what society thinks is right versus what their sons want, all are important factors that explain why betrayal by adults is the central idea of this story.
In Remarque’s book, the main character, Paul Baümer and his comrades all have a bitter feeling towards their once schoolmaster, Kantorek. The reason for this resentment towards the man is because he was basically the cause of everything. Everything being the reason why the young men joined the army. In the very beginning of the story, where Paul describes everyone, and when he describes Kantorek, it is certain that he dislikes the man. He also reveals that Kantorek was the one who almost manipulated the boys into joining the German forces.
“Kantorek had been our schoolmaster, a stern little man in a grey tail-coat, with a face like a shrew mouse..... During drill-time Kantorek gave us long lectures until the whole of our class went, under his shepherding, to the District...

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AllQuiet on the WesternFront
Written by Erich Maria Remarque, AllQuiet on the WesternFront is a sort of a historical fiction type of book. I would classify it as a fiction because the book is based on an odd point of view in war.
AllQuiet on the WesternFront is a novel about a young teenager named Paul Baumer and his friends who enlist in the war. He and his friends in World War I. Paul and many of his friends from school volunteered to join the army after listening to their teacher, Kantorek talk about how honorable it is to fight for your country. When the boys started training, they realized that war was a lot more harsh than they had anticipated. After experiencing about two months of rough training from their cruel trainer, Corporal Himmelstoss, they realized that the talk and rumors about war were completely opposite than the reality of it. They lost their belief that war is glorious or honorable, and they live in constant fear; physical and emotional. Much like actual soldiers, Paul had a difficult time recapturing what his life used to be when on leave back in his hometown. Paul goes through more trauma than any young man should. His friends were killed in war one by one as Paul wondered why he was still alive. He faced many trials; guilt from killing enemies who he believed were...

...Essay: AllQuiet on the WesternFront
An anti-war novel often portrays many of the bad aspects and consequences of war. Erich Remarque&#8217;s AllQuiet on the WesternFront is a novel set in the First World War that is against war. Remarque describes the terrible reality of the war, focusing on the horrors and involved. The novel portrays an anti-war perspective as it brings up issues about the brutality of war, the narrator&#8217;s change of attitude towards war, the futility of war and the deaths of the narrator&#8217;s friends.
In the novel, Remarque presents the brutality of war. Early on in the novel, he describes the sound of the wounded horses and how brutal the war atmosphere is. &#8220;There is a whole world of pain in that sound, creation itself under torture, a wild and horrifying agony&#8221; (p44). The brutality of war in the novel, however, is mainly shown through human suffering. Baumer talks about brutal things that soldiers are just expected to do. He says, &#8220;When you put a bayonet in, it can stick, and you have to give the other man a hefty kick to get it out&#8230;&#8221; (p74). The German soldiers attack the enemy with extreme instinctive brutality. &#8220;With the butt of his rifle, Kat smashes to pulp one of the machine-gunners&#8230;We bayonet the others before they can get their grenades out&#8221; (p84). The...

...mentality of, “I must kill or I’ll be killed” or they will surely perish. Taking this idea to heart can be a very moralistic test that most people can’t handle. AllQuiet on the WesternFront is one of the greatest war novels ever written because of its exposing graphic depiction of war. In the short note before Chapter One, Remarque lets the reader know exactly what themes he intends. War is savage, unjustified and unnatural. He intends to explain why the war was responsible for the destruction of an entire generation. Remarque is very clear on the strength of his themes, and uses graphic imagery to show the reader the physical and psychological impact that war has on a person.
War brings about hardship, pain and suffering to all involved. It is the battle of two sides made of young men; many of them do not understand what they are fighting for or who they are fighting. Remarque’s novel AllQuiet on the WesternFront helps portray the image of war and idea of warfare in a pretty gruesome way. He also made his point through the physical deterioration, but mostly through mental and emotional destruction of Paul Baumer and his comrades.
In the novel, Remarque does a flawless job conveying the horrible misfortunes of war. Through the eyes of Paul Baumer, a story is told of hopelessness and desperation on the German front lines...

...Year 10 Analytical Essay: AllQuiet on the WesternFront
Introduction:
Erich Maria Remarque, AllQuiet on the WesternFront, follows the life of a young German solider named Paul Baumer fighting on the westernfront in World War One. Over the course of the story Paul discovers that war isn’t what people make it out to be, and that war caused him to lose his identity. Paul’s experience in the war proves that the negative effects that is causing him to go confused and doesn’t really know what to do with him, his friends have been dyeing right in front of him and he has got blood on his hands. The young solider and older soldiers have led to a lost generation of men. The book alternates between periods at the Westernfront and peaceful interludes, horrifying battles and scenes of young comrades passing time together, episodes in the field hospital and at home on furlough. Fresh out of high school, Paul and his classmates idealistically enter military service, but the realities of war soon transform Paul and his comrades into "old folk" and "wild beasts." War destroys these men: their hope in a seemingly hopeless situation attests to the endurance of the human spirit.
Body:
The lost generation feels like a terrible sense of betrayal, by their teachers, parents and government. As they asked...